Corps returns to system for dock permits

Remaining ones will be on first-come, first-serve basis

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has finished reviewing dock permit applications filed a couple of years ago as part of a lottery effort to hand out remaining dock permits. But there’s a handful of dock permits left, so the corps plans to revert to first-come, first-served around Labor Day.

GAINESVILLE — A five-year lottery system didn’t complete the task, so the Army Corps of Engineers plans to revert to a first-come, first-serve basis for issuing the remaining boat dock permits on Lake Lanier.

The corps began the lottery in 2009 with 187 available permits and ended up approving 121 permit “equivalents” out of 281 requests, with a permit either serving as a single dock or two slips in a community dock, said Chief Ranger Ernest Noe.

Nearly 200 requests overall were rejected.

However, “some of the requests submitted were found to not be for new permits at all,” Noe said. “They were for upgrades and didn’t need to be in the lottery process.”

Corps officials will announce the final number available when they start the first-come, first-serve process, sometime after Labor Day, the ranger said.